Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 68.djvu/538

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534
POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

thousand, or a million—it makes no difference, since it is never paid—'for a case which can not be cured,' etc. As an example of the sincerity of these offers an illuminating correspondence is quoted from the Journal of the American Medical Association, as follows:

April 21st, 1906.
Drs. Brown and Lenox, Rogers, Ark., send us an account of a case of catarrh which was not cured by Hall's Catarrh Cure. The patient, Mr. Robert Parks, consulted these physicians for catarrh and stated that he had just finished his twenty-sixth bottle of Hall's Catarrh Cure, but that instead of being benefited he was worse. Mr. Parks wrote to the Cheney Medicine Company, the maker of Hall's Catarrh Cure, giving his experience, and asking the firm to pay $100.00 in accordance with the advertisements: "$100.00 for any case of catarrh which it will not cure" or to refund the money he had paid.

The following is a copy of a letter which he received in reply:

Toledo, Ohio, March 30th, 1906.

Robert Park, Rogers, Ark. Dear Sir: Yours of recent date received and in reply will say, as we have already said, that many cases require much more than you have taken for a cure, and as this is the case and Hall's Catarrh Cure is not placed on the market on the 'No cure, no pay' plan, we would not feel at all justified in refunding the money paid for this trial of the medicine. Will further say that you have failed to state much regarding your disease, symptoms of same, of how long standing, symptoms of the action of the medicine, etc. Had we more information concerning your case, we might have been able to make some helpful suggestions regarding the treatment."

Yours very truly,

F. J. Cheney & Co.
A. G. A.

The second type of falsehood which is used by these manufacturers is the testimonial lie. Some obscure citizen who has been rescued from some imaginary complaint spills his gratitude to the nostrum manufacturer in a lurid if ungrammatical epistle. Sometimes, however, it is not an obscure citizen, but a prominent one, a senator, or an admiral of the United States Navy or some one equally before the public eye. Some of these testimonials are absolute fabrications. The boldness with which nostrum venders manufacture evidence is astonishing, and only comprehensible in view of the fact that there is usually no legal punishment. Some years ago, Duffy's Malt Whiskey Company stated in their advertisements that it was recommended in consumption by Dr. ———, one of the most prominent physicians of Philadelphia, when as a matter of fact he had never tasted it nor prescribed it; but the courts offered no redress and the only means of cleansing his reputation was an advertisement in the daily papers. Some of the testimonials are bought. (There is a firm in this country which is engaged in the sale of testimonials to nostrum manufacturers.) The following circular speaks for itself.

As you are aware, we have your testimonial to our remedy. It has been some time since we have heard from you, and so we thought best to make